Not much time spent getting to teachat lately, but when I got on here tonight I noticed this topic...cool..talking about food! I call myself a "foodie"...I love to eat and I used to be very overweight...ten years ago I lost 75 pounds. I still love to eat, but now I love to eat really good food. If I'm going to eat something that is bad, it had better be really really really good. I'm always on the lookout for new recipe ideas and I love to "google-up" a new recipe and dink with it and make it my own. When we are eating some new thing that I've made, if someone comments that they like it I'll say "thanks, it's an old family recipe that I just made up." Those recipes become "keepers".

I'm discovering the joy of cooking with cast iron. I purchased my first cast iron frying pan about a month ago and I'm lovin' it! The best fried chicken wings, great chicken fajitas, awesome egg foo young, and the best ever home-made steak. Until now all these were dishes that we could only get if we went "out". What a money and time savings to have these special favorites at home and I get to make these things with the quality ingredients that I choose.

I can't wait to read more of what gets shared in the food corner of the teachat!

Mmmmm, this afternoon I made a delightful roasted chicken in my big cast iron skillet. I used this recipe: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/pan_r ... gravy.html. It filled the house with the most wonderful aroma and it was fabulous. I served it with brown/wild rice and green beans. I'm really looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Yesterday for lunch I grilled salmon filets over a wood fire basted with home made spicy honey lime dressing leftover dressing was for dipping. And for sides I soaked some cucumber slices in a mix of lime juice, rice vinegar and spices and roasted chives with butter and garlic on the fire

Somehow I have missed this thread! Ill have to go back and read previous posts laster. I don't get to cook as much as I used to, but tonight I am having fun making some chicken mushroom risotto. It's something fairly new to me, and it is fun getting it just a bit better each time.

Oh, I haven't done anything today but cook! Well, I have eaten and washed some dishes

We've been celebrating various things all day...daughter finished another semester of college with a 4.0 this time, son graduates from high school Tuesday, his girlfriend graduated on Monday, and today DH and I are celebrating 29 years of "widded bless" (that's how I said it earlier )

Started with my own homemade breakfast sausage (grandma's recipe of ground pork and spices) with biscuits and gravy and, of course, a big pot of hot tea.

Now we're all recovering from a favorite meal of sloppy joes, corn on the cob, and baked beans. Dessert was a home-made honey whole wheat pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

entropyembrace wrote:Yesterday for lunch I grilled salmon filets over a wood fire basted with home made spicy honey lime dressing leftover dressing was for dipping. And for sides I soaked some cucumber slices in a mix of lime juice, rice vinegar and spices and roasted chives with butter and garlic on the fire

Ate a wonderful meal in Chinatown today, somewhere I can't remember nor pronounce the name of. The dish was a noodle soup, hot curry beef. It was quite delicious, coconut milk based. The staff was so funny, they kept trying to steer me to the regular-Chinese fare that all Americans know and love. And the entire time I ate, they were hovering over me, they kept asking if it was too spicy, telling me how to eat it. It was amusing, and the soup was simply delicious, perfectly mix of rich and spicy! I think they gained a new respect when I finished the entire bowl.

Meringues in the oven at the moment, attempted a new recipe earlier that just plain failed - I think I didn't beat it long enough and it didn't come to stiff peaks, even though it was quite shiny and looked ready. Ah well. Back to the basics, I suppose, and I'll get back to that recipe later. Needed to make it again because I don't like failure.... I'll try to take pics once they come out of the oven, if I can remember.

Also, made ground turkey and blackberry empanadas for dinner tonight - very tasty!!

My wife makes this huge sandwiches from only the freshest deli and garden ingredients. Too many to list in fact. But every since I started bringing them to the office people have been drooling over them. Finally they offered to pay her to make them, so we got up early and I helped her prep seven of them for other employees. We had some happy campers here at work today.